UPDATED 21:51 EDT / MARCH 19 2018

EMERGING TECH

Trump bans US purchases of Venezuela’s ‘Petro’ cryptocurrency

U.S. President Donald Trump today banned Americans from trading Venezuela’s “Petro” cryptocurrency in a blow to what was already a dubious moneymaking scheme.

The executive order, signed Monday, retrospectively dates to Jan. 9 a ban on all U.S. citizens undertaking any transactions, financing or other dealings in any digital currency, digital coin or digital token issued by or on behalf of the government of Venezuela. The order goes on to cover any methods or means that have the purpose of evading or avoiding the order.

Venezuela announced its intention to launch the Petro, a cryptocurrency allegedly tied to the country’s oil reserves, before launching a presale Feb. 20. The presale offered 82.4 million tokens out of what is claimed will be a total of 100 million tokens worth $6 billion, meaning that Venezuela would raise $4.9 billion, much-needed foreign currency for the struggling socialist state.

Trump’s order is no surprise, since Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro had previously said that the initial coin offering and cryptocurrency were squarely aimed at bypassing U.S. trade sanctions to “advance in issues of monetary sovereignty, to make financial transactions and overcome the financial blockade.”

The use of ICOs and cryptocurrencies to facilitate financial transactions has recently caught the attention of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau within the U.S. Department of the Treasury. It said in a letter earlier this month that ICOs need to be registered as money transmitters and also comply with anti-money-laundering statutes and know-your-customer rules. “An exchange that sells ICO coins or tokens, or exchanges them for other virtual currency, fiat currency, or other value that substitutes for currency, would typically also be a money transmitter,” FinCEN said.

Photo: The Photographer/Wikimedia Commons

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.

  • 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
  • 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network.
About SiliconANGLE Media
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.

Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.